Free Republic

“It’s too easy to forge a deed and record it,” Real estate attorney Richard Alembik told WSB-TV. “It’s a big problem nowadays, because of the fact that e-filing, the e-recording of deeds is so easy. It’s very easy to record forged deeds.” Alembik said notaries don’t check the identification of the people who submit the documents to verify if they are the rightful homeowners. Victims of fraud who have proof to be the rightful homeowners can still be ordered by a judge to move out and pay fines, according to the outlet. An elderly Georgia homeowner was forced out of...

An elderly Georgia homeowner was forced out of his house and arrested when an alleged swindler used fraudulent documents to claim ownership of the property. Charles and Charmaine Allman lived in the same Stone Mountain, Ga. home — located 16 miles east of Atlanta — for the last two decades before officials told the couple Tuesday that they no longer owned the house and had to vacate. “They made us feel like we were squatters,” Charmaine Allman told WSB-TV. “Just tossed my stuff out like it was trash.”

https://atlantablackstar.com/2024/03/05/nonprofit-housing-director-federally-charged-in-deed-fraud-scheme/ A director of a Detroit housing nonprofit geared toward helping homeowners at risk of foreclosure was federally charged for her role in a fraud scheme designed to steal dozens of homes from low-income residents – and she lives in one of the stolen properties, according to the United States Attorney’s Office. Before Zina Thomas, 60, was arrested on Feb. 28 and charged with conspiracy to commit wire fraud, wire fraud, money laundering and aggravated identity theft, she was the director of Homeownership Programs for the United Community Housing Coalition in Detroit, joining the organization in 2021. “This scheme targeted...

A man who swiped an elderly woman’s house with phony documents did time for the crime — but an appellate court is letting the city off the hook for processing the paperwork that let the ex-con make himself at home.   A Brooklyn appeals court has ruled that a judge was right to toss a lawsuit brought against the city by Jennifer Merin — whose Queens abode was filched by a criminal who filed a fraudulent deed.   Merin, 74, had sued the city for not catching the forgery when the paperwork was first filed, but lost on appeal when the court...

I'll go on record: McDonnell by 6.

The modest brick house, with its yard full of wilting tulips and rusted old cars, isn't a candidate for the pages of Better Homes and Gardens. But on a spring day in 2002, it was just what Nealie Pitts had in mind. She approached the owner, Rufus T. Matthews, and asked the price. According to court documents, Matthews said the house was selling for $83,000 - but that a deed restriction meant only whites were eligible to buy it. "I was hurt and angry, like he had slapped me in the face," Pitts, who is black, said in an e-mail....

Bishop frightened of proposed legislation: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ClergyNet_VaUMC/message/3907 Text of the Virginia Senate Bill 1305: http://leg1.state.va.us/cgi-bin/legp504.exe?051+ful+SB1305 (this has italics and strikeouts showing current/new) Read it below: --- From: "vaumccommunications" Date: Fri Jan 28, 2005 4:57 pm Subject: From Bishop Kammerer and Clark Williams To: All Clergy in the Virginia Annual Conference From: Bishop Charlene Kammerer Clark Williams, Conference co-Chancellor Re: Senate Bill #1305 Attempt to Nullify the Trust Clause Dear Colleagues - A new piece of proposed legislation is currently pending in the Virginia State Senate which, if adopted into law, would have serious adverse consequences for many churches in the Commonwealth...